"Nintendo has no plans to remove region locking from our systems. By taking this approach, Nintendo is able to include parental controls and ensure compliance with regional standards and rating systems."

Their reasons for not doing it are so freaking stupid.. I will make sure to buy everything used from them so they dont get any of my money, especially when I get around to importing the inevitable NA exclusive along with a NA 3ds.

I like the part where they try to justify it by saying different countries have different rating agencies and what is acceptable in one culture may not be acceptable in another.

I'd buy that if these games were sold side by side at gamestop but they aren't. While I know there are a couple import stores out there that do sell games, they are largely the minority making gamers have to specifically seek out websites that specialize in imports. Their reasoning just isn't believable.

I like the part where they try to justify it by saying different countries have different rating agencies and what is acceptable in one culture may not be acceptable in another.

I'd buy that if these games were sold side by side at gamestop but they aren't. While I know there are a couple import stores out there that do sell games, they are largely the minority making gamers have to specifically seek out websites that specialize in imports. Their reasoning just isn't believable.

There's also the angle you could either lock out importing entirely, finetune based on each rating system, or do something automatic based on the desired rating. Nevermind that while on average each country has different values every single person has different values, just because a game got an M in the US doesn't mean people won't lets kids under 17 play the games as CoD readily shows. It's just a lame excuse with Nintendo being as obsessively protective as usual, though hopefully constantly drawing attention to this will make them eventually realize it is possible to address that in ways that do address some people's concerns.

Seems backwards. Unavailability leads to more piracy. I went and bought a second 3DS so I could play games as they are released in the US, but not everyone is going to have the money to do that plus import all their games like I do. It's 10x more likely they will just get a flashcart or emulate it instead, and then no money at all goes to Nintendo.